Novel anti-UV superhydrophobic material
A new study presents an anti-UV superhydrophobic material with photocatalysis, self-cleaning, self-healing and oil/water separation functions.
The superhydrophobic material was successfully prepared. Image source: Pexels - Pixabay (symbol image).
-The superhydrophobic material was successfully prepared with a water contact angle of about 155.5° and a rolling-off angle of about 6.8°, which showed superior UV resistance (365 nm, 5.0 ± 0.6 mW cm−2) for an illumination period of 30 h.
Self-cleaning surface
The degradation of organic dyes, such as Nile red, methyl blue and orange, could be also achieved with the prepared surface. Anti-UV water-repellency was combined with photocatalysis to realise a self-cleaning surface for both dirt removal and organic degradation. Moreover, the reversible changes with superhydrophobicity and superhydrophilicity were induced by the self-healing property on such a surface, contributing to heavy and light oils/water separation.
Because of ultra-long UV-resistance, photocatalysis, self-cleaning, self-healing and oil/water separation functions, the reported surface has potential for application in a variety of fields.
The study has been published in Nanoscale, Issue 21, 2020.
Image source: Pixabay.
